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Sunday, January 4, 2009

There are five things inside The Orange Box: Half-Life 2, Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, Portal, and Team Fortress 2. All share Half-Life 2's bleak, unsettling vision of a planet Earth devastated and defeated and picked over by horrific invading aliens, rendered by a beautiful physics engine and astonishingly evocative audio effects. The real surprise is Portal, a satanically innovative puzzle game involving a gun that creates wormholes that zap objects from place to place. And don't forget Team Fortress 2, a multiplayer shoot-'em-up where players take on different roles and character classes. Taken all together — or for that matter, even in pieces — The Orange Box is an astounding achievement.